Walker News » Registry

How To Check .Net Framework Version Installed

Walker — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:27:37 +0000

Microsoft .Net 3.5 framework is in RTM version since Nov 2007. While not every Windows machines require .Net framework to run, but sooner or later you may find some programs failed because of no such framework installed or otherwise the latest .Net 3.5 framework is not found.

In this case, you might wonder what .Net framework version you have or do you have the so-called latest .Net 3.5 framework?
OK, general end users can use either one of these ways to check the .Net framework version:

Query the User Agent String of Internet Explorer web browser. This is the easier way, I think, as every Windows bundled with IE! Although you need to remember this simple, one line JavaScript:
javascript:alert(navigator.userAgent)

Copy and paste that line of JavaScript code to IE Address bar and press ENTER key, you will see a pop-up dialog box with similar content as this:

As shown, the IE 7 User Agent String shows my Windows Vista (Windows NT 6.0) has installed .Net 2.0 (.Net CLR 2.0.50727), .Net 3.0 (.Net CLR 3.0.04506) as well as the latest .Net 3.5 framework (.Net CLR 3.5.21022).

Please take note that that JavaScript code can be used in Firefox or Opera web browser to query their User Agent String too (but only the IE will report .Net framework version in its User Agent String).
Navigate to this Windows Registry path:
```
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP
```
The major version number of each .Net framework releases installed can be found at this Registry path. Click the major version number key and there is a string value called “version” on the right-pane that reports the full version number of that .Net framework:
Navigate to the Registry path that keeps the IE User Agent String:
```
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent\Post Platform
```
If you think this Registry key path is easier to remember than the shorter, one-line JavaScript code that query the User Agent String, then this could be your answer.
For those who have installed the latest .Net framework SDK, any of the .Net compilers report the .Net framework version at Command Prompt window as well.
For example, enter this C# command line compiler csc at Command Prompt window shows a similar header message as this:

If you’re programmer who is going to develop a simple .Net framework version verifier, here are two options, but only second option seems to be better:

Environment.Version property of .Net framework. For example, this simple C# source code can be compiled to a .Net console program that shows .Net framework version installed:
```
using System;

class Version
{
  public static void Main()
  {
    Console.WriteLine();
    Console.WriteLine(".Net Framework Version {0}",
       Environment.Version.ToString());
  }
}
```
You don’t have to install Visual Studio except the .Net framework SDK (which package all the .Net command line compilers, including the C# compiler). Thus, to compile the C# code in a source file called sample.cs with C# command line compiler, just enter this at Command Prompt:

csc sample.cs
Limitation of Environment.Version property – only one of the multiple .Net framework versions installed will be reported. I.e. if you’ve .Net 2.0, .Net 3.0 and .Net 3.5 version installed, Environment.Version reports only .Net 2.0 framework.
To overcome this problem, Aaron Stebner’s .Net version checker source code is better choice, where the programming approach is to query the Windows Registry keys and also call the mscoree.dll exported APIs to report the presence of all .NET Framework versions.

Aaron Stebner .Net version checker source code

Download the .Net version checker source code and compile the code with Visual Studio 2005 or Visual C++ 2005 Express edition, with the present of .Net framework 2.0 SDK or mscoree.h from that version of the SDK.

P/S: To direct download the latest .Net framework 3.5 full package (197 MB), you may find it at Microsoft Download Center, or just click here to direct download from genuine Microsoft server.

Registry Used To Print Vista Version On Desktop

Walker — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:32:36 +0000

This is just another little Vista trick and involves a bit of Windows Registry editing work. Execute this trick will not bring much benefit to the Vista system, except for just showing the Windows Vista version (precisely, the Vista built number) on the Desktop, automatically.

Yes, whenever the Vista build number changed, it’ll be automatically updated on Vista Desktop, at the bottom-right corner.
Since this little option is available, I think it worth to know (just in case, you might need this feature later).

The Vista Build Number printed on Desktop has automatically changed from Windows Vista Build 6000 to Windows Vista Build 6001, after installing Vista SP1 successfully.

How to automatically show Windows Vista version or build number on Desktop?

Using Command Line Registry Console Tool (Reg.exe)

Copy this Vista command line, paste it to the Command Prompt window and press ENTER key.

reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v PaintDesktopVersion /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

You don’t have to open an elevated Command Prompt window (means that this Registry key can be added to non-Administrator account’s Desktop too).

However, I recommend you to enable the Command Prompt copy and paste feature for this operation.

To disable the auto-printing of Vista Build Number on Desktop, just delete the PaintDesktopVersion Registry Value, i.e. execute this Reg.exe command line for deletion:

reg delete "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v PaintDesktopVersion /f

Using Windows Registry Editor (Regedit.exe)

Click the Vista Orb (Vista Start button), type regedit in the Start Search textbox and click the Regedit.exe link shown in Programs list.

Then, browse to this Registry key path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Desktop

While at the Desktop Registry key, looks for the PaintDesktopVersion and set its value to become 1.

If the PaintDesktopVersion Registry is not exists, create a 32-bit DWORD Value as PaintDesktopVersion and set its value to 1.

How To Add An OEM Logo To Vista System Properties

Walker — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:27:54 +0000

I believe that some of you’ve came across an OEM hardware logo displayed on Windows System Properties window, particularly on those branded workstations / laptops.

Of course, being able to display an OEM logo in Windows System Properties has little or zero benefits to most general users (except for advertisement by hardware manufacturers)
However, you might just want to have some fun, to impress your superior, to show off a little Windows skills, etc, then you might wanted to know how to add a picture or logo in Windows Vista SP1 System Properties window.

For demo, this screenshot shows how the OEM logo and related information are shown in Vista SP1 System Properties window (specifically, this window is just known as System window, that you could open up with Windows + Pause hotkey or right-click Computer follow by clicking Properties menu):

How to add an OEM logo or image to Vista SP1 System Properties window?

Prepare your own OEM logo or image, cut / crop it to 120×120 pixel and save it as BMP file format (a.k.a. Bitmap file format).

Next, save this 120×120 BMP file to %windir%\system32 folder as OEMLogo.bmp, i.e.

copy YourLogo.bmp %windir%\system32\OEMLogo.bmp

Now, open up Windows Registry Editor,i.e.

Click the Vista Orb (Vista Start button)
Type regedit on the Start Search textbox and press ENTER
Click the regedit.exe link shown in the Program list

Browse to this Registry path

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OEMInformation

(If you can’t find the OEMInformation key, right-click the CurrentVersion key, select New followed by Key option and name the new Key as OEMInformation)

While at the OEMInformation key, right-click on the right-pane, select New followed by String Value to create these Registries as “String Value” type:

Logo – the full path of OEMLogo.bmp, i.e. C:\windows\system32\OEMLogo.bmp
Manufacturer
Model
SupportURL
SupportHours
SupportPhone

Double-click each of those Registries and enter the text descriptions, as show in this screenshot:

How To Change IE 7 Window Title Text

Walker — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 16:49:37 +0000

Ever thinking of customize or change the IE 7 window title text, i.e. changing “Windows Internet Explorer” to something else?

E.g, replace IE window title text with the company name to impress customers who are using the Internet kiosks.

Or better still, impress your love with his/her name written on IE window title!
How to change or customize IE 7 window title text?

Here are 3 ways to do so, and each of them are applicable to Internet Explorer web browser running in Windows (if not Windows, what else?).

Double-click Windows Registry file

Copy these lines of Windows Registry file content to Notepad and save it with .reg file extension (Windows Registry file), e.g. Change-IE-Window-Title.reg in my case. Remember to replace “Walker News” with yours own text!

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"Window Title"="Walker News"

Double click the Windows Registry file to customize or change the IE 7 title text.

If the Vista UAC is not tweaked or disabled, a Consent UI dialog box will pop up to ask for acknowledgement. Follow by is the Registry Editor’s warning message that said something like “Adding information can unintentionally change or delete values and cause components to stop working correctly.”

Just click YES button to proceed. Subsequently, open a new IE 7 browser and the window title text should have changed from “Windows Internet Explorer” to your customized text!

Registry Console Tool or Reg.exe command

Copy this line of Reg.exe command text to Windows Vista elevated Command Prompt window and press ENTER key:
(refer to “How to copy and paste text in Command Window”)

REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main" /v "Window Title" /t REG_SZ /d "Walker News" /f

Manually edit with Windows Registry Editor

1) Type regedit in Vista Instant Search and press ENTER to open the Windows Registry Editor.

2) Navigate the tree-structure at left pane with this path

HKEY_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

3) Look for “Window Title” Registry key at the right pane. Create a string value type of Registry key and name it as “Window Title” if it isn’t there.

4) Double-click the “Window Title” Registry key and enter the customize text that will appears in IE window title.

How To Fix PowerPoint Slide Show Crash Problem

Walker — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 07:10:16 +0000

My PowerPoint 2007 running in Windows Vista Ultimate keeps on hang up whenever I try to open a PowerPoint Slide Show. After couple of attempts, the Problem Reports And Solutions program pop up a temporarily Registry trick for the application hang up problem.

In the Event Viewer, the Application Log recorded the error messages that said [ Faulting application POWERPNT.EXE, version 12.0.4518.1014, time stamp 0x45428035, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 6.0.6000.16386, time stamp 0x4549bdc9, exception code 0xc0000374, fault offset 0x000af1c9, process id 0x120c, application start time 0x01c7dd01e9f43530 ].
Before committing the temporarily Registry trick, I went to ask Google for similar problems and solutions. The search results seem to suggest that the hang up was likely caused by Voxware MetaSound Audio Codec compatibility issue in Windows Vista.

According to Windows XP Documentation, Voxware MetaSound Audio Codec is one of the common audio codecs supported by Windows (officially). In this case, a third party Voxware audio codec installation might have caused the compatibility problem.

With this codec problem, you’ll likely encounter PowerPoint 2007 hangs up when opening Slide Show with sound effects, Outlook 2007 crash when the Outlook Reminder tool play a sound alert, OneNote close and exit when access to Option menu, etc.

How to temporarily fix or resolve Voxware Audio Codec compatibility issue or the Office 2007 application hang up problem?

As per Windows Vista bundled Problem Reports And Solutions program, the problem was caused by a compatibility problem between earlier version of Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office 2007. But, the Registry trick is obviously to disable the Voxware audio codec from loading in Windows Vista.

Press the Windows shortcut key or click the Vista Orb to bring up Vista Start menu,
Type regedit in the Start Search text box and press ENTER key to bring up Windows Registry Editor,
Double-click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, SOFTWARE, Microsoft, Windows NT, CurrentVersion, Drivers32,
Locate the msacm.voxacm160 Registry key on the right pane (the Vista Problem Reports And Solutions suggest a different Registry key named msacm.voxacm16, which is not exists in my Vista Ultimate version),
Right-click the msacm.voxacm160 Registry key, select Rename option and change it to something else, e.g. no.msacm.voxacm160

Bear in mind that this is only a temporarily Registry trick to resolve the codec compatibility problem. In rare cases, this trick may cause older programs that rely on this audio codec to malfunction! If it happens so, try to revert the Registry change – i.e. rename no.msacm.voxacm160 back to msacm.voxacm160 will do.

So far, this Registry trick works well for my case!

Configure Windows Registry In Command Prompt

Walker — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 03:43:25 +0000

You might have learnt about Reg.exe command in some of the Registry-related tweaking articles – and I have this command in some of my posts too.

Registry Console Tool, the descriptive name of Reg.exe, is a simple command line program used to manipulate or configure Windows Registry keys from Command Prompt, Windows Batch program, Windows script, etc.
If all you need is just to write a really simple one-click program to tweak the Windows Registry keys, you can either create a Windows Registration File (the .REG file extension) or using the Registry Console Tool command.

For added features such as program intelligence and user interaction, you could write a Windows script to call the WSH functions – the WshShell.RegWrite and WshShell.RegRead function to manipulate Windows Registry keys directly or the WshShell.Exec function to get Reg.exe do the job.

How to create the .Reg file or Registration File for a particular Registry key and all its associated values in Windows Vista?

Open up Windows Registry Editor and locate the destination Registry key
Right-click the Registry key and click Export option from the pop-up menu
In the Export Registry File dialog box, select the target folder to save the to-be-created .REG file, give the Registration File a name, leave the Exported Range option to stay as Selected Branch, and click the Save button.

Once the .REG file created, you can easily recreate the key and associated values on another computer – just save the .REG file on the target Windows machine and double-click it. Having say that, one can also backup the whole Windows Registry keys (for restoration in the case of Windows Registry corruption) by selecting ALL option of the Export Range section in Export Registry File dialog box!

How to manipulate the Windows Registry keys from command line with the Reg.exe or Registry Console Tool in Windows Vista?

Open up an elevated Command Prompt window in Windows Vista and type reg /? – the Windows Vista Ultimate version of Registry Console Tool allows one to perform Registry tasks such as QUERY, ADD, DELETE, COPY, SAVE, LOAD, UNLOAD, RESTORE, COMPARE, EXPORT, IMPORT, and FLAGS.

Hence, things that can be done in Registry Editor are well supported by Reg.exe tool as well. Best of all, Reg.exe allows one to write a Batch program or Windows script to automate the tasks!

To understand how each of the Reg.exe options going to work, e.g. the ADD option, you can type reg add /? in the Command Prompt window. And, remember to get an elevated Command Prompt window in case of writing to Windows Registry in Windows Vista.

For an intelligent Windows scripts or Batch file, always use the Reg.exe return code to confirm the Reg.exe command has committed successfully or fail at errors – 0 means successful or 1 means failure.

Download the Reg.exe tool from Microsoft Download Center

Should you need a copy of Reg.exe to run on Windows Server 2003, Windows XP or Windows 2000, download either one of the Microsoft Platform Support Reporting Utility package.

This is the Reg.exe version 2.x but works similar to Reg.exe in Windows Vista Ultimate, except missing the additional FLAGS option.

Personally, I prefer to download the smaller file size package, i.e. the Software Update Services package. It’s a self-extract package which you could unzip the content by double-click the file or by using Power Archiver and copy the Reg.exe program to one of the folder in %PATH% environment variable (by executing set PATH or echo %PATH% in Command Prompt window). The best bet is on Windows installation directory, i.e. C:\winnt (for Windows 2000) or C:\windows (for Windows XP and Windows Vista).

Review of adding, deleting or changing Windows Registry keys with Reg.exe in Windows Vista

1) How to add Copy To Folder or Move To Folder option in Context menu?

2) How to change the Remote Desktop listening port number?

3) How to tweak or disable UAC in Windows Vista Command Prompt?

4) How to change or spoof Internet Explorer User Agent String value?

5) How to tweak the Vista Bubbles screen saver hidden settings?

How To Change Remote Desktop Listening Port

Walker — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 09:08:08 +0000

By default, the Windows Remote Desktop service will automatically listen to TCP port 3389.

However, it’s perfectly fine to change or alter the default RDP listening port for any reasons that an administrator can think of. For example, to bypass Firewall that only allow web browsing but restrict Remote Desktop connection and others protocols.
In this case, you might need to change the default TCP 3389 to TCP 80 or 443 for the Remote Desktop service running on Vista Ultimate PC at home.

How to change the Remote Desktop listening port on Windows Vista?

This RDP trick is applicable to Remote Desktop service running on Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP as well (and likely working on Windows Server 2008 or later too)!

Open up the Windows Registry Editor and browse to this Registry path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp

Locate the PortNumber Registry key on the right-pane, double-click to open, click the Decimal option in the Base section, enter 443 in the text box and click OK (change 443 to the port number of your need).
Take note that:
- The new TCP port for Remote Desktop service must not currently in used. To confirm the TCP port 443 is free or unused, type
  netstat -an | find "443"
  
  at the Command Prompt window. If there is no output from the netstat command, meaning that the TCP 443 port number is not in used (and thus available for new RDP listening port).
- If you’re not comfortable with Windows Registry Editor, you can simply copy and paste the following Console Registry Tool command (Reg.exe) to an elevated Command Prompt window in Windows Vista:
  You might need to download Reg.exe from Microsoft if it’s not currently in your Windows.
```
REG ADD "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp" /v PortNumber /t REG_DWORD /d 443 /f
```
- To change back to the default, simply replace the PortNumber Registry key (in this case, TCP 443) to TCP port 3389.

How to restart Windows Remote Desktop service after changing its listening port?

There are at least two ways to enable/disable or restart Remote Desktop service – Group Policies or System Properties:

Using Group Policies (i.e. gpedit.msc)

Click the Vista Orb, type gpedit.msc in the Start Search text box (Vista Instant Search) and double-click the “gpedit” in the Program list
For Windows XP SP2:
In Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Terminal Services, double-click the Allows users to connect remotely using Terminal Services setting.

For Windows Vista Ultimate:

In Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Terminal Services, Terminal Server, Connections, double-click the Allows users to connect remotely using Terminal Services setting.
Click Disable to deactivate Remote Desktop and then click Enable to reactivate the service again.

Using System Properties dialog box

If the “Allows users to connect remotely using Terminal Services” Group Policy setting is set to “Not Configured”, the “Enable Remote Desktop on this computer” setting (on the Remote tab of the System Properties dialog box) takes precedence. Otherwise, the “Allows users to connect remotely using Terminal Services” Group Policy setting takes precedence.

For Windows Vista computer:

Click the Vista Orb, type system, locate the “System” shortcut in the Program list and double-click to open it
Click the Remote Setting shortcut (require administrative privilege if UAC is turned on) in the Task pane (on the left)
In the Remote Desktop section, select the “Don’t allow connection to this computer” option and click Apply button.
Select either “Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop (less secure)” or “Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication (more secure)” option and click Apply button – to reactivate Remote Desktop service to listen on new TCP port number.

For Windows XP SP2 computer:

Right-click My Computer icon
Select Properties option from the pop-up context menu
Click on the Remote tab of System Properties dialog box
In the Remote Desktop section, untick the check box that labelled “Allow Users To Connect Remotely To This Computer” and click the Apply button
Tick the check box that labelled “Allow Users To Connect Remotely To This Computer” and click the OK button

Now, the netstat -an | find "443" will showing the TCP 443 port listening for RDP connection!

How to connect to a Windows Remote Desktop service that is not listening on the default TCP 3389 port number?

Open the Remote Desktop Connection client and specify the host:port syntax (e.g. Vista-Ultimate:443) as the connection string.

^{Instruct the Windows Vista Remote Desktop Connection client to connect to localhost at TCP port 9999 (via SSH Port Forwarding) instead of the default RDP listening port}
With reference to Microsoft Technet on Enable or Disable Remote Desktop and Microsoft Knowledge Base article KB306759 on How to change the listening port for Remote Desktop